A conventional pallet container of the present type is disclosed in the German Patent DE-C 195 11 723. The support structure enclosing the inner container comprises a grid of vertical and horizontal metal tubes, which are deformed at their intersection so as to form four contact points at which the tubes are welded to one another.
In practice, the grid support structure of such pallet containers are subject to various mechanical loads, for example a vertical load when such containers are stacked on one another. In addition, during handling and transportation, the containers may slide and hit one another or may even be dropped causing high impact loading. Such loading of the grid construction, especially at the welded tube intersections can cause breakage of the welds. In addition, with repeated mechanical stress loading at the welds, fatigue cracks can arise in the metal tube material adjacent the tube intersection.